fost12, the Fusarium oxysporum homolog of the transcription factor Ste12, is upregulated during plant infection and required for virulence

We have identified a Fusarium oxysporum homolog of the Ste12 transcription factor that regulates mating and filamentation in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. The corresponding gene, fost12, from a highly virulent strain of F. oxysporum f. sp. phaseoli, was confirmed to share a high level of similarity and possessed the STE and C2H2 domains characteristic of the fungal Ste12 transcription factor family of proteins. Disruption of fost12 resulted in no visible alterations of colony morphology or in vitro growth characteristics. However, the disruption mutants showed a substantial reduction in virulence when inoculated in common bean seedlings. In planta transcription of fost12 is drastically increased between 12 and 24 h after inoculation, as detected by real-time RT-PCR. The results of the transcriptional analyses carried out in several F. oxysporum strains during axenic growth suggest that the fost12 gene product is a virulence factor required to deal with the nutritional stress confronted by the pathogen during host plant colonization.